EAST RUTHERFORD — The Giants were willing to overlook David Wilson’s high fumble average in college because they liked the way he ran the ball out of the backfield and returned it on kickoffs and punts — when he held on to it.

The Giants’ No. 1 pick in the 2012 Draft, Wilson has already shown flashes of being their running back of the future.

But that can wait.

What can’t wait is the production they hope to get from him in the return game.

Sunday night in Philadelphia where the Giants lost 19-17 because Lawrence Tynes was two yards short when he attempted a game-winning 54-yard field goal, Wilson may have cemented his job as the kick return specialist.

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The rookie from Virginia Tech showed tremdendous quickness and a knack for finding a hole to burst through on his kick returns, as the averaged 36.2 yards on six kicks. He also had a long of 53 he nearly broke for a touchdown that could have put Big Blue on top late.

His returns led coach Tom Coughlin to call him, “a weapon.”

Coughlin went even further in analyzing Wilson’s contribution.

“We probably had as good a field position based on our kickoff return game that we’ve had in a long, long time,” the coach said. “It is quite obvious now that people are really going to have to contend with that aspect of our team.”

“Special teams opened up some great holes,” said WIlson. “I used some of my abilities and was able to give us some nice field position. I got close to breaking a couple of the returns, and it’s frustrting it didn’t happen.”

What frustrated Coughlin was a shovel pass Wilson failed to hold to in the first half when he got his only chance on offense in the game. In all honesty, the pass was a little behind Wilson as he moved past QB Eli Manning, but that didn’t matter to Coughlin.

“It was an excellent call, at the right time. It was well set up, there was no indication it was coming whatsoever,” said the coach, who even gave the touchdown signal thinking Wilson would score.

“They (Eagles) had been subject to the crack block in previous games relatively effectively. If I was a defensive player I would’ve played it the same way. They were looking for crack and because they were looking for crack, it gave us a chance.

“I don’t know if it was an exactly perfect flip, but it should be caught. It’s there.”

Other than the Giants losing, that was the only disappointment for Wilson in a game that made NFL fans watching around the country take notice of him.

“My momentum was going this way and the pitch was kind of behind me but I touched it enough where I should have caught it,” he said. “It was blocked up pretty well, too.”

Wilson, who fumbled on his second offensive carry of the preseason and immediately went into Coughlin’s doghouse, is still fighting to regain a regular spot in the running back rotation with Ahmad Bradshaw and Andre Brown.

“He works hard everyday. He’s trying to get it all figured out,” added Coughlin. “He wants you to know how much it means to him, how important it is.”

Meanwhile, Wilson will try to contribute on special teams now that his confidence has grown tremendously.

“When you get as close as I did to breaking some runs it lifts your confidence. I do feel I am going to bring one back very soon,” said Wilson, who was stopped twice on shoe string tackles. ”Anybody that watched the game saw how close I came a couple of times. The coaches had watched film and felt I could return one in the game, and it almost came to fruition.”

Maybe Sunday when the 1-3 Cleveland Brown make their first visit to MetLife Stadium, Wilson will be hoping to take a kick or two coast-to-coast and finally hear the cheers from the big home crowd.

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One Giant who won’t face the Browns is wide recdeiver Ramses Barden, who was on the injury report Wednesday with a concussion he said he suffered late in the game when Manning threw to him on thre estraight passes to the right sideline. The first two times the Eagles were called for pass interference, but on the third throw Barden got whistled for interference, pusing the Giants beyond Tynes’ field goal range.

Coughlin said Barden had, “complained of a headache and asked if he could be evaluated. They sent him for the evaluation yesterday. I think a lot of the symptoms were okay, but there was enough there to slow him down.”

Barden said he had taken a hit to the back of the head on the second interference call.

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Sitting out practice with him was wideout Hakeem Nicks, who didn’t dress for the Eagles game because of ankle and knee soreness that limits him to one practice a week.